The purpose of Designs for Learning is to propose a set of design principles for expanding and legitimizing learning opportunities for teachers and other professional educators in schools. Using the metaphor of architecture, Designs for Learning proposes new designs for creating learning spaces for professional educators that challenge the boundaries, forms, and purposes of traditional design, delivery, content, and outcomes of professional development. Building on empirical research and exemplary practices, Designs for Learning provides examples of professional learning expressed in this new architecture in its most natural setting-- in schools and classrooms. Formal and informal professional learning, beyond the school are also included in the landscape for professional learning.
Paul V. Bredeson is a Professor of Educational Administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he teaches courses in Professional Development and Organizational Learning, Instructional Leadership and School Improvement, and Research Methods. He has been a Professor at Ohio University and at Pennsylvania State University where he also served as the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania School Study Council. Before entering higher education, he was a High School Principal and Spanish Teacher in Wisconsin and Connecticut respectively. During the past 20 years, his research has centered on alternative con-ceptions of leadership and professional learning in schools. Grounded in his professional work experiences, his research and writing has two major strands. The first strand centers on the intersection of professional work and learning. The second focuses on the impact of alternative conceptual-izations of leadership on the work of school principals.
Preface List of Tables and Figures About the Author Part I: Redesigning Professional Learning for Educators 1. Breaking the Box: New Designs for Professional Learning in Schools 2. Building Beneath the Surface: Footings and Foundations for Professional Development 3. Creating a Professional Learning Community Part II: Creating Learning Spaces In and Beyond Work 4. Professional Development As Work: Essential Work for Educators 5. Professional Development In Work: Continuous Learning in Classrooms and Schools 6. Professional Development At Work: Benefits and Drawbacks to Workplace Learning 7. Professional Development Outside of Work: Creating Support for Off-Site Learning 8. Professional Development Beyond Work: Inward and Outward Learning Journeys Part III: Evaluating and Implementing New Designs for Professional Learning 9. Evaluating the Architecture of Professional Development 10. From Design Studio to School Site: Creating Learning Spaces in Your School References Index
"Paul Bredeson's application of architecture's principles of function, structure, and beauty to professional development policies and processes offers a unique and highly stimulating perspective sure to alter the thinking and work of researchers and practitioners alike. Creating artful designs for learning with structural integrity that appropriately meet the needs of educators and the students they teach should be the concern of professional developers at all levels." -- Thomas R. Guskey, Professor "Intellectually evocative and practically grounded, this book acknowledges teachers as individuals and lifelong learners vitally engaged in their world and their profession. It should be at the top of the reading list for teachers, principals and anyone involved in planning, implementing or evaluating professional learning in and beyond schools." -- Professionallly Speaking, September 2003
